Has anyone heard anything about Ukla Academy in Bursa, any idea what the management is like (adequate or not), the pay and any other comments about job-related experiences in that school would be appreciated.

Hi everyone. I have been working at UKLA for 3 years and have been very pleased (I have recieved my salary each month). They offer housing plus a guarenteed salary each month. I am not sure of the starting wages but they are probably around 18 TL a lesson hour (lessons run about 50 minutes). They also got me work permission and government health insurance. I have been very impressed with the management. They give us space to be creative and have fun in the classroom. Oh, I work at the Izmir branch but both Izmir and Bursa are under the same management. Happy job hunting!

For anyone thinking of applying for UKLA in Bursa you might want to take a look at this (http://teflblacklist.blogspot.com/2007/05/ukla-academy-bursa-turkey.html) I reserve my judgment, there are only two teachers who commented on it, however they didn't seem very happy. The teachers may be as bad as they are claiming, however the response from Adres Language School didn't seem very professional. I am not sure if Adres is affiliated with the school, but they seem to know the situation personally.

I'm not going to go out on a limb and say that UKLA is a good/bad place to work but the stories on TEFLblacklist should not influence anyone's opinion.

First of all, Adres Language School is not affiliated with UKLA.

Second, the story on TEFLblacklist is from a teacher who decided to go back on her decision to travel to Turkey for a job with UKLA due to personal reasons and was out the $200 they promised her because of that.

Personally I think UKLA is typical of most Turkish language courses and the pay is even a bit better than a lot of them.

I began teaching at UKLA Academy in December 2013. They told me it would take 6-8 weeks to get my work visa. I worked there until June without a work visa. They gave me excuse after excuse as to why there were problems securing it, always blaming the Turkish government (fairly or not) for the delays.

I will add that, up until the end, I was generally happy working there. The classes and students were great and they paid on time. For a while, I thought I would be there for at least two years.

Things turned sour in May. My residence visa was set to expire in three days. I went to the foreigner's office in Bursa to renew it. At that time, the police officer informed me that the laws had recently changed and there were new requirements for foreigners to renew the visa (e.g., health insurance, bank account, proof of residence, etc.). All the information was in Turkish.

My Turkish is minimal, so I gave the information to the owner. She didn't bother to properly investigate the new rules, including the one that gives foreigners a ten day grace period to fulfill the new requirements.

When I returned to the foreigner's office (unaccompanied by UKLA because they knew it was illegal for me to be employed there without a work visa) about 15 days later, they told me I had overstayed my visa and had to leave the country for 90 days. When I tried to explain I had no idea there was only a ten day grace period, they said ignorance of the law was not an excuse, which I understood. I was on a plane out of Turkey three days later.

Of course, the ignorance of the law was directly attributed to UKLA, which had promised me to obtain my visas and whose responsibility it was to know these things.

I ended up losing three months income; worked illegally for seven months at UKLA without health insurance; and was promptly hung out to dry by them when I was forced to leave Turkey.

My experience with UKLA-Bursa reflects only one teacher's perspective. Others may report a positive one. But if I were a teacher looking for a job in Bursa, I would recommend you avoid them like the plague. You cannot trust the owner at all. She knowingly employs teachers to work illegally until their visas are approved. But if things go wrong, she will drop you like a hot potato.

I also worked at UKLA several years ago, in Bursa. Like you, I didn't have any problems with the school except for their lack of assistance in securing any sort of permit. I was really astonished to see that they knew absolutely nothing about visas, residence permits or work permits. And this from a company that might be the largest employer of ESL teaching foreigners in Bursa and a school that has been in operation for many years.

Back then it was still possible to do visa runs. I informed the management that I had to go to Bulgaria and she said I had 15 days to renew the visa. This is not true. If you're one day late you are fined. It's 15 days to renew the residence permit I believe. But she didn't know that. A company that has that many foreign teachers should be aware of the regulations but they are not. From your post it appears that they haven't changed and the new visa regulations have been in force for, if I remember correctly, a couple of years now at least.